Category: Garden Volunteer Newsletter Archive

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Phone: (843) 761-8509

Visitors are welcome at Mepkin Abbey, which is privately owned and is home for Trappist monks. Living according to the Rule of St. Benedict, the monks offer hospitality to strangers. At Mepkin, that means that the abbey’s gardens are open daily from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. The Reception Center/Gift Shop is open Tuesday – Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Sundays from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. (closed on Mondays); guided tours to the Abbey Church are offered Tuesday through Saturday at 11:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. (See details below) To maintain their lives of prayer, silence, privacy and solitude, the monks have a few important requests of all visitors:

• Upon arrival, please check in at the Reception Center/Gift Shop.

• Read and abide by all signs.

• Only two roads are open to the public: the main road which runs from the entrance to the public gardens, and the road which leads to the Reception Center & Store. Please stay on these two roads.

• Dogs must be on leashes at all times. (Please pick up after your dog.)

• Access to the Abbey church is by guided tour only. This access is limited because the church is in the monastic enclosure, the heart of the monastery.

• No professional photography allowed.

Tours

Guided tours to the Abbey Church are 11:30 AM and 3:00 PM Tuesdays to Saturdays. Tours are $5 per person (children and students free) which includes a guidebook of either the Gardens or the Monastery. (Note: The guided church tours include a walk from the Reception Center to the Abbey Church, a distance of about a quarter of a mile.) Reservations required for groups of 10 or more.

Visitors may enjoy the public gardens at their leisure.

Reception Center/Gift Shop

Once a month, on a Friday, the monks have a day of total silence and solitude. They call these the “Desert Days” and no tours of the monastery are given on these days. However, the Reception Center/Gift Shop and the gardens are open.

Upcoming Desert Days:

January 11
February 8
March 15
April 12
May 3
June 7
July 5
August 2
September 6
October 4
November 8
December 20

December at the Abbey was a month of the joyful anticipation and celebration of the coming of our Lord. The Creche Festival was again a great success, and we thank all of you for your many extra hours assuring the gardens be in top shape. We received many nice compliments on the grounds. As is our custom, our crews did not work during the week of Christmas or the week of New Year’s, but despite all, several of our Volunteers came and kept things in order.

November is the month we receive thousands of Visitors to see Mepkin’s unique Creche Collection. Our job was preparing for the event to have everything ready to welcome the guests. One highlight every year is the huge wreath that Jamie Nelson and her helpers fashion for the tower of the Luce Library. The 2013 Wreath is made completely with pine cones; please note that all the materials are natural, and even the bow is woven from palms.

September at the Abbey, after preparation for the Dedication of the Retreat House in August, was “maintain, maintain, maintain”. Several ongoing projects progressed or are completed. We are in the process of renewing pots, or adding ones from the Greenhouse that will be in view during the upcoming Creche Festival in November.